Blue-Green Algae Blooms Coming Earlier - 20 Days Early In N. Atlantic 2003 to 2012

Warmer oceans are acting like a catalyst for one of the world's most abundant species of plankton, triggering earlier blooms of blue-green algae in the waters of the North Atlantic. Because of plankton's fundamental role in the marine ecosystem, researchers expect this shift to have far-reaching impacts throughout the world's oceans.

The study, published in the journal Science, focused on Synechococcus, a type of blue-green algae that is one of the most abundant phytoplankton in the ocean. The authors drew on 13 years worth of data to measure the spring blooms that cover the North Atlantic in a carpet of green each year.

For every degree increase in water temperature, they found, the plankton bloomed four to five days earlier. From 2003 to 2012, the warmest years in their study, the bloom shifted by 20 days. The change will likely continue as the region warms in coming years.

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Some migratory whales and other marine creatures have synchronized their own lifecycles to the blooms. As a result, scientists have theorized that changes in the timing of these events could lead to a "mismatch" between predator and prey, with predators essentially arriving late to the party. "There's this worry that if those two predators and prey don't track each other, we're going to see big effects," said Sara Rivero-Calle, a postdoctoral scholar in oceanography at the University of Southern California who was not involved with this study.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102016/global-warming-climate-change-boosts-ocean-algae-blooms-photoplankton-marine-life